The standadization of an image coding scheme called HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) by JCTVC (Joint Collaboration Team-Video Coding), which is a joint standardization organization of ITU-T and ISO/IEC, is currently under way for the purpose of improving coding efficiency more than H. 264/AVC (see, for example, “High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) text specification draft 10 (for FDIS & Consent)” by Benjamin Bross, Woo-Jin Han, Gary J. Sullivan, Jens-Rainer Ohm, Gary J. Sullivan, Ye-Kui Wang, and Thomas Wiegand, (JCTVC-L1003 v4. Jan. 14 to 23, 2013).
HEVC provides not only coding of a single layer but also scalable video coding, as in known image coding schemes such as MPEG2 and AVC (Advanced Video Coding). An HEVC scalable video coding technology is also called SHVC (Scalable HEVC) (for example, see “Description of scalable video coding technology proposal by Qualcomm (configuration 2)” by Jianle Chen, el. al, (JCTVC-K0036, Oct. 10 to 19, 2012).
Incidentally, scalable video coding is generally a technology that hierarchically encodes a layer transmitting a rough image signal and a layer transmitting a fine image signal. Typical attributes hierarchized in the scalable video coding mainly include the following three:                Space scalability: Spatial resolutions or image sizes are hierarchized.        Time scalability: Frame rates are hierarchized.        SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) scalability: SN ratios are hierarchized.        
Though not yet adopted in the standard, the color gamut scalability, the bit depth scalability and chroma format scalability are also discussed.
Further, a pixel dynamic range is an important attribute which has an influence on an image quality. For example, the maximum luminance of a Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) image supported by many known displays is 100 nits. On the other hand, the maximum luminance of a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image supported by high-end displays available in the latest markets reaches, for example. 500 nits or 1000 nits. An SDR image is called a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) image in contrast to an HDR image. Non-Patet Literature 3 proposes a technique of hierarchically encoding a layer transmitting an LDR image and a layer transmitting a residual for restoring an HDR image.